


where we came undone

by januarys



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-18
Updated: 2013-02-18
Packaged: 2017-11-29 17:18:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/689494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/januarys/pseuds/januarys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>ME3. <i>Kaidan takes all the moments that he can.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	where we came undone

**Author's Note:**

> A little fluff because ME3 is giving me the feelings as always. Kaidan's dialogue tweaked from [this](http://www.gophoto.it/view.php?i=http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwb0t5fxnX1qacki4o1_500.jpg#.USHkDsXMiSo) quote. I wish I knew the source because it's so _Kaidan_. Ugh.

Kaidan remembers back to a time when the stars suddenly lost their appeal.

He had been kneeling in the snow of Alchera, hands fisted into the cold, thinking that  _gone shepard is gone_ and he glanced to the stars hidden behind the aurora that danced in the northern horizon. Her body was drifting through the stars and it was possibly reduced to nothing, possibly still intact. He wasn't sure which was worse.

Alchera dug into his bones. Alchera was the void inside of him. Alchera made him fear the stars for an endless moment.

Now though. Now his hands rest upon Shepard's sleeping form, one around her waist and another on her neck. Her pulse flutters beneath his fingertips. Her scars tell stories beneath his palms. She shifts in her slumber and he pulls her closer, never wants to lose the feel of her skin against his own.

Kaidan rests his forehead against Shepard's own and tries not to wake her. His thumb traces a soft pattern on the expanse of her neck, traces the puckered flesh beneath his calloused skin. She shifts closer to him, an unconscious hum of approval passing from her lips.

He kisses the corner of her mouth, the freckle on her jaw, and ducks his head to brush his lips against the fluttering pulse on the side of her throat. His nose brushes against the soft strands of raven hair that rest on the nape of her neck and he tightens his arms around her waist, her skin impossibly soft against his.

"Trying to sleep here, Major," Shepard says, muffled voice shrouded with amusement, "your insubordination will be dually noted."

He smiles against her neck and Shepard moves her head back to look at him, her brilliant blue eyes sparkling. Kaidan doesn't want to look away from them, from  _her_. He lost her for two long years; he wants to make up for all that time.

Her fingers find their way to his jaw, brushing against the stubble, tracing his cheek. Her heartbeat races against his chest. Kaidan pulls her closer.

"What is going on in that head of yours Kaidan?" She says, and her breath warm against his skin.

Kaidan glances to the open roof beneath their heads, to the stars that glisten into the endless void. Alchera throbs in his veins for a moment. He looks back to her, takes in the freckles on her cheeks and the questioning shine in her eyes.

She's here. Shepard is  _here._

"You know," he says softly, never breaking their gaze, "there a million amazing things inside of this galaxy."

Shepard stays still in his arms. His thumb still brushes her neck, her pulse racing beneath her skin. Kaidan leans in and presses their foreheads together again. They breathe in sync. There's nothing else but the two of them right now. There is no report to file, and there is no next mission, and there is no war raging among the stars.

There is only  _this._

"I don't even have to leave this bed to see them all."

The only sound he can hear is that of her heartbeat, impossibly loud in the space they're in. Shepard watches him, something unfamiliar in her gaze, before she kisses him softly, a sigh in the back of her throat.

He smiles into her clinch and Kaidan, true to his words, loses himself to every amazing thing he has in his arms.


End file.
